Bidong Island is located in Kuala Nerus district, Terengganu. Its size is 203 square hectares. The island is also known as Vietnam Island, as it was once used to keep the Vietnamese refugees during 1976 – 1991.  

Based on the information from Terengganu’s state museum, the Vietnamese refugees were placed on the island beginning August 1978 when the federal government gazetted it as a refugee camp to make it easier to provide medical, food, humanitarian aids to the refugees who left their country due to war.  

In October 1978, the total number of refugees on the island was 60,248. In November 1991, the island was returned to the state government. Beginning 2015, the island is under the administration of Kuala Nerus District Office after Kuala Nerus was announced as the eighth district and no longer part of Kuala Terengganu district.   

Lately, Bidong Island has become more popular among the public following the efforts by the state government to develop the island as heritage-based tourism destination.

These efforts have started since 1991 after the official closing of the refugee camp. The island is still visited every year by former refugees to relieve their memories and by the relatives to visit the graves of those who died in camp.

The state government intends to make Bidong Island as popular as the other islands in Terengganu, such as Redang Island, Perhentian Island, Kapas Island, and Tenggol Island.

In fact, after being designated as a restricted area for 15 years, Bidong Island has its own uniqueness that will attract tourists.

The area by the main jetty is managed by the state museum. There is a campsite here with toilet and surau facilities. Tourists may visit during daytime or set up their tents at the designated site to spend overnight on the island. There are two tourism operators on the island, Summerset Bidong Island, which has a diving centre called Divex Garage, and Bidong Bay Campsite, which offers a campsite and overnight accommodation.

Not far from the jetty area is a coral reef incubation centre that is run by Yayasan Coral Malaysia (YCM). The centre engages the local community to carry out coral reef colony breeding activities at several underwater locations around Bidong Island.

The Ministry of Tourism, Art, and Culture (MOTAC) is also promoting Bidong Island as a tourism destination. In November 2021, Tourism, Art, and Culture Minister Dato’ Sri Hajah Nancy Shukri officiated the launching of a new diving site where 11 mini landmarks from each ASEAN country have been placed underwater.  

The 11 mini landmarks are Kuala Lumpur Petronas Twin Tower (Malaysia), Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque (Brunei), Cambodia Independence Monument (Cambodia), Patuxai Monument (Laos), Indonesia National Monument (Indonesia), and Shwedagon Pagoda (Myanmar). In addition, also placed at the site are Joe Rizal monument (Phillipine), Merlion (Singapore), Wat Arun Ratchawararam Ratchaworamahawihan (Thailand), tran Quoc Pagoda (Vietnam) and the ASEAN Secretariat logo.

Each monument has been specially built to show the cultural diversity and unity among ASEAN countries, and they will attract tourists and scuba diving enthusiasts to the new diving site.  

Other diving sites on Bidong Island are Underwater Gallery, Christmas Garden, Karah Island, Kerisi Reef, Middle Reef, Gorgonian Garden, Deloh Reeff, Skull Stone Island, and a few more, and these sites have their own uniqueness. These sites can become the main attraction for tourists to visit Terengganu. Scuba diving enthusiasts have another diving package option to choose in addition to the ones at Tenggol Island, Redang Island, and Perhentian Island.  

Also on the island is a research centre owned by Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), known as Bidong Island Nature Research Station. It functions as a field research station, off campus teaching and learning facility for students in marine science, fisheries, and other marine-related programmes. Among the research carried out here is on coral reef ecosystem to understand about coral reef sustainability not only around Bidong Island but also the country.

In addition, the station has been chosen as the venue for some of the main events on the island and become the diving training centre of government security and corporate agencies. UMT has also set up UMT Dive Centre to support scuba diving activities on the island and train its students as well as the public interested in obtaining diver’s license. UMT also conducts research in underwater archaeology. Its researchers have discovered a shipwreck of 100 years ago near the island’s waters and the place will be turned into an underwater archaeology training centre, with collaborations from National Heritage Department and corporate agencies.  

However, unlike other tourist islands, Bidong Island has a few constraints. Accommodations are still limited and visits to the island are controlled for reasons of safety and protection of historical sites and old architectural structures.  

Because of the limited accommodations, the frequency of boat service to the island is also limited compared to Redang Island. To turn the island into a full fledge tourist destination, improvement needs to be made on the island’s heritage-based tourism model, its readiness to become a tourist island, and its facilities and accommodations.

Bidong Island has the potential to be further developed if it can offer to tourists the combination of three elements, namely tourism, heritage, and knowledge exploration. It may become a unique and exclusive product not offered in other tourism packages. The current Bidong Island community, UMT, the state museum, Yayasan Coral Malaysia, and tourism operators, can form a special consortium to develop a package to Bidong Island. Annual allocation from the state government has to benefit the island’s sustainable development and tourism activities.

Prepared by:

Mohd Izham Mohd A Wahid

Chief Assistant Registrar

Corporate Communications Office, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu